Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed stirs up antediluvian malevolence, a nightmare fueled chiller, debuting October 2025 across top streaming platforms

One hair-raising spiritual shockfest from screenwriter / director Andrew Chiaramonte, manifesting an mythic fear when outsiders become subjects in a hellish game. Going live October 2, 2025, on Amazon’s Prime Video, YouTube, Google’s digital store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV Plus, and Fandango platform.

Hollywood, CA (August 8, 2025) – get set for *Young & Cursed*, a gut-wrenching chronicle of staying alive and primordial malevolence that will transform genre cinema this cool-weather season. Directed by rising cinematic craftsman Andrew Chiaramonte, this unsettling and emotionally thick cinema piece follows five young adults who are stirred caught in a off-grid dwelling under the dark control of Kyra, a tormented girl possessed by a timeless religious nightmare. Be warned to be seized by a audio-visual ride that integrates soul-chilling terror with ancestral stories, releasing on Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on October 2, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a legendary element in the entertainment world. In *Young & Cursed*, that framework is twisted when the fiends no longer develop externally, but rather through their own souls. This marks the deepest element of the protagonists. The result is a edge-of-seat mental war where the plotline becomes a brutal conflict between moral forces.


In a haunting natural abyss, five souls find themselves marooned under the malicious force and grasp of a obscure entity. As the characters becomes incapacitated to escape her dominion, isolated and targeted by entities unnamable, they are required to face their deepest fears while the clock relentlessly ticks onward toward their demise.


In *Young & Cursed*, delusion intensifies and alliances collapse, demanding each individual to challenge their personhood and the integrity of volition itself. The consequences escalate with every short lapse, delivering a nightmarish journey that fuses supernatural terror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my goal was to channel core terror, an power from prehistory, embedding itself in inner turmoil, and examining a spirit that redefines identity when stripped of free will.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Becoming Kyra called for internalizing something beyond human emotion. She is ignorant until the possession kicks in, and that flip is soul-crushing because it is so personal.”

Rollout & Launch

*Young & Cursed* will be distributed for audience access beginning this October 2, on Amazon’s platform, YouTube, Google’s store, Apple iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango on-demand—making sure households in all regions can dive into this spirit-driven thriller.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just released a new official preview for *Young & Cursed*, uploaded to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a sequel to its release of trailer #1, which has attracted over a viral response.


In addition to its initial rollout, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has shared that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, delivering the story to international horror buffs.


Join this visceral exploration of dread. Join *Young & Cursed* this day of reckoning to see these chilling revelations about the psyche.


For exclusive trailers, production news, and reveals from those who lived it, follow @YoungCursedOfficial across online outlets and visit the movie portal.





Contemporary horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season U.S. rollouts blends legend-infused possession, independent shockers, alongside IP aftershocks

Kicking off with grit-forward survival fare saturated with old testament echoes and stretching into canon extensions alongside surgical indie voices, 2025 is emerging as horror’s most layered in tandem with calculated campaign year in the past ten years.

It is loaded, and also intentionally sequenced. major banners are anchoring the year using marquee IP, in tandem streamers front-load the fall with debut heat as well as legend-coded dread. Across the art-house lane, horror’s indie wing is surfing the uplift from an unprecedented 2024 fest surge. Because Halloween continues as the prize window, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. A dense September through October runway is now a rite of passage, but this year, teams are capturing January, spring, and mid-summer. Audiences are eager, studios are targeted, hence 2025 may prove the most strategically arranged season.

Studio and Mini-Major Moves: Prestige-leaning dread rebounds

Studios are not on the sidelines. If 2024 framed the blueprint, 2025 doubles down.

Universal’s distribution arm fires the first shot with a bold swing: a reconceived Wolf Man, avoiding the standard nineteenth century European backdrop, but a crisp modern milieu. Guided by Leigh Whannell featuring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, this version roots the lycanthropy in family fracture. The shift goes beyond the body, touching marriage, parenting, and raw humanity. Slated for mid January, it aligns with turning the winter slack into a premium lane, not a dumping lane.

Spring brings Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig starring Katie Douglas opposite Kevin Durand, it is blood soaked Americana horror with a satirical streak. Under the guise, it interrogates township panic, generational breaks, and mob rule. Early circuit chatter says it has bite.

When summer tapers, Warner’s schedule unveils the final movement from its cornerstone horror IP: The Conjuring: Last Rites. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson again portray Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie targets a resonant finish through an infamous case. Granted the structure is classic, Michael Chaves appears to favor a elegiac, inward tone here. It is dated for early September, granting margin before October’s crush.

The Black Phone 2 follows. First targeted at early summer, the move into October reads bullish. Scott Derrickson returns, and the core ingredients of the sleeper original are back: old school creep, trauma explicitly handled, with ghostly inner logic. The bar is raised this go, through a fuller probe of the “grabber” lore and inherited grief.

Closing the prime list is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a movie that scarcely needs conventional ads. The next entry deepens the tale, adds to the animatronic nightmare bench, courting teens and the thirty something base. It opens in December, buttoning the final window.

Streaming Offerings: Economy, maximum dread

As theatrical skews franchise first, streamers are taking risks, and it is paying off.

A high ambition play arrives with Weapons, a multi timeline cold-case dread piece threading three timelines via a mass disappearance. Under Zach Cregger with turns by Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the movie mixes chill with dramatic weight. With a late summer theatrical bow and fall streaming drop, it is expected to spark online debate and post viewing breakdowns, much like Barbarian before it.

At the smaller scale sits Together, a room scale body horror descent pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Situated in an out of the way rental during a failed escape, the story examines love plus envy plus self disgust as flesh ruin. It feels intimate, ghastly, and profoundly uneasy, a three part fall into codependent hell. Though no platform has officially staked a release date, it is poised for a fall platform bow.

Next comes Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn headlined by Michael B. Jordan. Framed in sepia richness with biblical metaphor, it nods to There Will Be Blood beside Let the Right One In. The piece examines American religious trauma via supernatural allegory. Trial screenings frame it as a high chatter SVOD arrival.

Other streamer plays queue softly: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper each engages grief, missing persons, and identity, with metaphor before show.

The Possession Runs Deep: Young & Cursed

Arriving October 2 across major platforms, Young & Cursed reads as a rare blend, small in footprint yet mythic in spread. Shaped and helmed by Andrew Chiaramonte, the piece tracks five strangers awakening in a remote wilds cabin, under Kyra’s sway, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. When evening turns to black, Kyra’s control expands, an encroaching force weaponizing fears, cracks, and guilt.

The chill is psyche led, anchored in primal myth. Skipping the exorcism norm of Catholic rite and Latin line, this piece touches something older, something darker. Lilith ignores rite, she wells up from trauma, quietude, and human weakness. The shift to interior possession, not exterior conjuring, flips expectation and aligns Young & Cursed with an expanding wave, intimate character portraits wearing genre.

The film is positioned on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home as Halloween balance against sequel stacks and creature returns. It reads as sharp positioning. No bloated mythology. No continuity burden. Just psychological dread, contained and tense, tailored to the binge then breathe cadence of digital horror fans. With a spectacle heavy year, Young & Cursed may pop by going quiet, then screaming.

Festival Origins, Market Outcomes

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF remain breeding grounds for what horror looks like six to twelve months later. They are increasingly launchpads rather than showcases.

This year’s Fantastic Fest has already confirmed a strong horror lineup. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, a folkloric revenge thriller drenched in Aztec lore, is set to close the fest hot.

Midnight fare like If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rides on craft as well as title. That one, an A24 backed satire on toxic fandom set during a horror convention lockdown, is poised for breakout status.

SXSW premiered Clown in a Cornfield and introduced several microbudget hauntings currently circling deals. Sundance appears set for grief threaded elevated horror once more, as Tribeca’s genre wing angles urban, social, and surreal.

In 2025, festival strategy is less about discovery, more about branding. Badges kick off the sell, they do not merely decorate.

Heritage Horror: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

The returning series menu is stronger and more calculated than before.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, dated July, revives the 90s franchise with a new lead and throwback tone. Compared to earlier parts, it tilts camp and prom night melodrama. Picture tiaras, bright red goo, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 opens late June, targeting a broadened techno horror canon with new characters and AI spawned nightmares. The original’s social and streaming breakout emboldened Universal to double down.

On the slate sits The Long Walk, from one of Stephen King’s stark early titles, with Francis Lawrence directing, it operates as a bleak dystopian tale masked as survival horror, a walk off to death for kids. With clear targeting, it could become The Hunger Games for horror grown ups.

Other reboots and sequels, including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, scatter across the calendar, many awaiting strategic windows or late acquisitions.

Trends Worth Watching

Mythic Horror Is Mainstream
Young & Cursed with Lilith and Whistle with Aztec curses both signal ancient texts and symbols. This is not nostalgia, it is a reclamation of pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror swings back
The likes of Together, Weapons, and Keeper reshift toward flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation map to heartbreak, grief, and regret.

SVOD originals harden up
Disposable horror filler days on platforms have passed. Services bankroll legitimate writing, legitimate directors, and proper media. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival hype becomes leverage
Wreaths work as currency, buying release slots, placement, and press. No festival plan in 2025, and disappearance looms.

Theatrical Is Now a Trust Fall
Studios release horror theatrically only when they believe in overperformance or sequel trees. The balance slides PVOD or hybrid. Horror persists theatrically, in curated lanes.

Projection: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. There may be pivots into early 2026 or across platforms.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 anchors December, and a surprise streaming drop could still arrive late. With mythic energy high, a late creature or exorcism entry could pop.

The hinge is broad reach to atomized viewers, not single tentpoles. The goal is not Get Out again, it is horror with staying power past opening weekends.



The oncoming terror cycle: installments, standalone ideas, and also A Crowded Calendar tailored for frights

Dek The arriving terror cycle stacks from day one with a January traffic jam, then runs through midyear, and pushing into the festive period, fusing IP strength, new voices, and strategic calendar placement. The major players are focusing on tight budgets, theatrical leads, and social-driven marketing that elevate the slate’s entries into broad-appeal conversations.

The genre’s posture for 2026

The horror sector has shown itself to be the most reliable play in studio calendars, a vertical that can surge when it resonates and still limit the drag when it stumbles. After 2023 proved to studio brass that low-to-mid budget scare machines can steer audience talk, 2024 kept energy high with visionary-driven titles and unexpected risers. The head of steam fed into 2025, where reawakened brands and elevated films signaled there is capacity for a spectrum, from brand follow-ups to fresh IP that resonate abroad. The sum for the 2026 slate is a programming that seems notably aligned across the market, with defined corridors, a harmony of recognizable IP and first-time concepts, and a renewed attention on cinema windows that power the aftermarket on PVOD and streaming.

Studio leaders note the space now slots in as a schedule utility on the distribution slate. Horror can bow on virtually any date, offer a clean hook for promo reels and vertical videos, and exceed norms with crowds that show up on first-look nights and stick through the week two if the offering connects. On the heels of a strike-induced shuffle, the 2026 layout demonstrates belief in that setup. The year commences with a heavy January schedule, then plants flags in spring and early summer for counterprogramming, while holding room for a late-year stretch that carries into All Hallows period and beyond. The schedule also includes the greater integration of indie distributors and subscription services that can nurture a platform play, spark evangelism, and move wide at the right moment.

A parallel macro theme is brand strategy across linked properties and established properties. The players are not just producing another installment. They are working to present lineage with a premium feel, whether that is a title treatment that broadcasts a refreshed voice or a casting pivot that ties a upcoming film to a early run. At the same time, the auteurs behind the headline-grabbing originals are embracing in-camera technique, makeup and prosthetics and concrete locations. That pairing affords the 2026 slate a robust balance of home base and invention, which is what works overseas.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount opens strong with two spotlight projects that live at opposite ends of the tone spectrum. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with original architect Kevin Williamson in the lead and Neve Campbell back at the forefront, presenting it as both a legacy handover and a origin-leaning character-focused installment. The film is shooting in Atlanta, and the creative posture conveys a memory-charged angle without recycling the last two entries’ sisters storyline. Watch for a push leaning on legacy iconography, intro reveals, and a two-beat trailer plan aimed at late fall. Distribution is Paramount in theaters.

Paramount also reignites a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are reuniting, with the Wayans brothers involved in creative roles for the first time since the early 2000s, a hook the campaign will spotlight. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will generate mass reach through social-friendly gags, with the horror spoof format lending itself to quick updates to whatever dominates the discourse that spring.

Universal has three discrete entries. SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, a tie-in spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The premise is clean, tragic, and easily pitched: a grieving man installs an AI companion that evolves into a lethal partner. The date nudges it to the front of a heavy month, with the Universal machine likely to echo uncanny live moments and brief clips that blurs intimacy and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio dates an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under early labels in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The official slate currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which creates space for a final title to become an earned moment closer to the opening teaser. The timing gives the studio a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles stack elsewhere.

Closing out the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film lands October 23, 2026, a slot he has worked well before. Peele’s pictures are branded as marquee events, with a teaser that holds back and a later creative that prime atmosphere without details the concept. The prime October weekend lets the studio to command pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then activate the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, partners with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček steers, with Souheila Yacoub at the center. The franchise has made clear that a gritty, practical-effects forward method can feel big on a middle budget. Look for a gore-forward summer horror charge that spotlights foreign markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio deploys two name-brand pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film rolls out August 21, 2026, sustaining a evergreen supernatural brand active while the spin-off branch moves forward. Sony has recalibrated on this title before, but the current plan keeps it in late summer, where the brand has been strong.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil re-enters in what the studio is framing as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a key part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both players and novices. The fall slot lets Sony to build promo materials around lore, and creature effects, elements that can amplify premium booking interest and cosplay-friendly fan engagement.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, places a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film extends Eggers’ run of period horror defined by historical precision and dialect, this time driven by werewolf stories. Focus’s team has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a vote of confidence in the auteur as a specialty play that can move wide if early reception is robust.

Digital platform strategies

Digital strategies for 2026 run on known playbooks. Universal’s slate move to copyright after a theatrical and PVOD run, a stair-step that elevates both premiere heat and subscription bumps in the later phase. Prime Video interleaves licensed content with world buys and limited cinema engagements when the data points to it. Max and Hulu accent their strengths in library engagement, using curated hubs, spooky hubs, and staff picks to increase tail value on overall cume. Netflix plays opportunist about internal projects and festival pickups, locking in horror entries closer to launch and positioning as event drops rollouts with tight-window plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a tiered of selective theatrical runs and speedy platforming that funnels enthusiasm into trials. That will be material for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working direct-to-fan channels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ adopts case-by-case posture for horror on a discrete basis. The platform has been willing to buy select projects with recognized filmmakers or name-led packages, then give them a prestige theatrical in partnership with exhibitors to meet award rules or to build credibility before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still capitalizes on the 20th Century Studios slate, a core piece for monthly engagement when the genre conversation surges.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is putting together a 2026 lane with two franchise steps. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The pitch is simple: the same brooding, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a favorite of fans, retooled for modern audio-visual craft. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn corridor, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has signaled a theatrical-first plan for Legacy, an encouraging sign for fans of the nasty series and for exhibitors hungry for R material in the late-season weeks.

Focus will favor the auteur track with Werwulf, escorting the title through a fall festival swing if the cut is ready, then pressing the December frame to go wider. That positioning has helped for auteur horror with audience crossover. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not announced many 2026 dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines often crystallize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A reasonable expectation is a cluster of late-summer and fall platformers that can scale if reception allows. Expect an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that surges from Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work together, using limited runs to kindle evangelism that fuels their community.

Balance of brands and originals

By skew, the 2026 slate favors the legacy column. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all use brand equity. The caveat, as ever, is audience fatigue. The operating solution is to package each entry as a recast vibe. Paramount is foregrounding character-first legacy in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a clean restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is pushing a French sensibility from a emerging director. Those choices count when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Originals and filmmaker-centric entries provide the air. Jordan Peele’s October film will be presented as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, casts Rachel McAdams in a marooned survival premise with the director’s playful dread. SOULM8TE offers a clean, creepy tech hook. Werwulf leans on period specificity and an uncompromising tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the team and cast is recognizable enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and preview-night crowds.

Three-year comps make sense of the logic. In 2023, a exclusive window model that observed windows did not foreclose a same-day experiment from succeeding when the brand was potent. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium formats. In 2025, a revived cycle of a beloved infection saga reminded the market that global horror franchises can still feel new when they shift POV and stretch the story. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which moves forward January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot back-to-back, permits marketing to cross-link entries through character web and themes and to continue assets in field without dead zones.

How the films are being made

The production chatter behind the upcoming entries foreshadow a continued turn toward hands-on, location-grounded craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not echo any recent iteration of the property, a stance that reinforces the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed principal and is set for its April 17, 2026 date. Anticipate a rollout that foregrounds grain and menace rather than roller-coaster spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership permitting smart budget discipline.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has said Werwulf as the most chilling project he has tackled, which tracks with a feudal backdrop and era-true language, a combination that can make for enveloping sound design and a raw, elemental vibe on the big screen. Focus will likely showcase this aesthetic useful reference in long-lead press and craft spotlights before rolling out a atmospheric tease that withholds plot, a move that has worked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is tuned for red-band excess, a signature of the series that exports well in red-band trailers and sparks shareable reaction clips from early screenings. Scream 7 aims for a self-referential reset that brings back the core lead. Resident Evil will stand or stumble on creature design and production design, which favor booth activations and timed asset drops. Insidious tends to be a sound-mix showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the cinema argument feel must-have. Look for trailers that emphasize pinpoint sound design, deep-bass stingers, and blank-sound beats that play in premium auditoriums.

Calendar map: winter through the holidays

January is heavy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a atmospheric change-up amid heavier IP. The month winds down with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival chiller from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is formidable, but the mix of tones lets each find a lane, and the five-week structure hands each a runway for each if word of mouth sustains.

Winter into spring seed summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with nostalgia energy. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once belonged to genre counterprogramming and now enables big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 feeds summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sorts the tones. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is lighter-toned and broader, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 brings ferocious intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can pop next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest feeds older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through PLF.

August into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives Sony a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously connected. Resident Evil steps in after September 18, a bridge slot that still bridges into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film occupies October 23 and will dominate cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely augmented by a mystery-first teaser plan and limited plot reveals that center concept over reveals.

Year-end prestige and specialty. Werwulf on December 25 is a signal that genre can play the holidays when packaged as filmmaker-driven prestige horror. Focus has done this before, platforming with care, then leaning on critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to hold in chatter into January. If the film clicks critically, the studio can scale in the first week of 2027 while riding holiday turnout and card redemption.

Title-by-title briefings, embedded in the narrative

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting continuing to be revealed as production advances. Logline: Sidney returns to re-engage a new Ghostface while the narrative rethreads the original film’s genes. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots reset with a contemporary edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A grieving man’s machine mate turns into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Wrapped principal for an early-year bow. Positioning: digital-age horror with pathos.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult organizes in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Twin-shot with the first film. Positioning: prestige weblink apocalypse continuation.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man returns to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to be swallowed by a shifting reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked and U.S. theatrical booked. Positioning: tone-first game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her tough boss battle to survive on a uninhabited island as the control dynamic reverses and mistrust rises. Rating: TBA. Production: Locked. Positioning: marquee survival piece from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles in the vault in official materials. Logline: A modern reconception that returns the monster to nightmare, shaped by Cronin’s practical effects and quiet dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Principal wrapped. Positioning: classic monster revival with auteur stamp.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A family-home haunting narrative that twists the dread of a child’s mercurial point of view. Rating: TBA. Production: locked. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven supernatural mood piece.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers reuniting creatively. Logline: {A satirical comeback that skewers hot-button genre motifs and true-crime crazes. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: production booked for fall 2025. Positioning: wide-lane seasonal counterprogram.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites bursts, with an transnational twist in tone and setting. Rating: not yet rated. Production: production in New Zealand. Positioning: R-forward continuation crafted for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: to be confirmed in marketing. Top cast: TBD. Logline: The Further unfurls again, with a young family tethered to returning horrors. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: set for summer production targeting late-summer opening. Positioning: dependable ghost-franchise slot that suits the brand.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: TBD publicly. Top cast: undisclosed. Logline: A new start designed to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with an lean toward true survival horror over action-centric bombast. Rating: pending. Production: dev phase with date secured. Positioning: game-faithful modern reboot with crossover potential.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: forthcoming. Logline: purposely secretive. Rating: TBD. Production: proceeding. Positioning: filmmaker event, teaser-driven.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on period-precise speech and elemental menace. Rating: undetermined. Production: in preproduction for holiday debut. Positioning: holiday prestige play with craft awards upside.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a traditional theatrical release planned before platforming. Status: date shifting, fall likely.

Why 2026 lands now

Three grounded forces calibrate this lineup. First, production that paused or shifted in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can slot in fast because scripts often use fewer locations, fewer large-scale CGI runs, and shorter schedules. Second, studios have become more measured about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently out-earned straight-to-streaming dumps. Third, community talk converts. The marketing teams behind these titles will leverage social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips pegged to Thursday preview nights, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it delivers.

Programming arithmetic plays a role. Early-year family and superhero blocks are thinner in 2026, leaving useful real estate for genre entries that can control a weekend or function as the older-skew counter. January is the prime example. Four distinct flavors of horror will trade weekends across five weekends, which gives each title a lane and limits cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The parody aligns with early family and action waves, then the hard-R entry can take advantage of a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Business outlook: budgets, ratings, and the sleeper hunt

Budgets remain in the comfort zone. Most of the films above will budget under the $40–$50 million tier, with many far below. That allows for heavy premium placement without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The breakout hunt continues in Q1, where midrange-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to press those advantages. January could easily deliver the first sleeper overperformer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Anticipate a robust PVOD phase across the board, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

From viewer POV, the year

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers beat and breadth. January is a spread, February delivers a legacy slasher, April resurrects a Universal monster, May and June provide a supernatural one-two for date nights and group outings, July turns feral, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a icy, literate nightmare. That is how you sustain conversation and attendance without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can compound over time, using earlier releases to condition the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers reliable Thursday lifts, optimized footprints, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing tactility, acoustics, and framing that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

2026 Is Well Positioned

Frames adjust. Ratings change. Casts refresh. But the spine of 2026 horror is firm. There is IP strength where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios grasp the timing of scares. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-stage specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the secrets, and let the scares sell the seats.